


Gamer Gurl

by TamZen (Tam_Zen)



Series: Together by Tomorrow (love stories with Tomorrow X Together) [1]
Category: TOMORROW X TOGETHER | TXT (Korea Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Video Game World, Attraction, Choi Soobin-Centric, Complete, Cross-Posted on Wattpad, Crushes, F/M, Feels, First Job, First Meetings, Firsts, Flirting, Fluff, Friendship, Gaming, Mistaken Identity, Mystery, Online Friendship, Online Relationship, Online Romance, Romance, Secret Admirer, Social Media, Texting, Whipped Choi Soobin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-04
Updated: 2021-02-10
Packaged: 2021-03-14 04:42:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 7,038
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28539774
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tam_Zen/pseuds/TamZen
Summary: Choi Soobin can't believe when he gets beaten multiple times in his favorite game by the same user, and now she seems to be taunting him across platforms. Can he figure out who she is and finally get his revenge?no ships, no smut. This is romantic fluff.This will be part one of a series of Tomorrow X Together fics called 'Together By Tomorrow'Also on Wattpad
Relationships: Choi Soobin/Original Female Character(s)
Series: Together by Tomorrow (love stories with Tomorrow X Together) [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2093568
Kudos: 3





	1. Chapter 1

Heuningkai rushes into the VLive room interrupting Soobin in the middle of his broadcast. He stops in the doorway to watch him, sat down at the desk eating ice cream. Soobin acknowledges the younger and smiles.

"I'm doing a VLive, did you know?" He motions for Heuningkai to come in and sit on the bed behind him. He sits just barely out of the view of the camera, his legs still visible. "Why did you rush in here?" he asks him, taking a big scoop of his chocolate chip. Heuningkai looks at the camera and then back to Soobin.

"I wanted you to play a game with me,"

"What game?"

"The one you like, Kill Switch," he says smiling.

"I can't play that game now, I'm on VLive for another 20 minutes," he explains.

Heuningkai shakes his head. "But that girl is on," he says looking awkwardly to the camera unsure if he should say anymore. Soobin looks at the camera, also thinking the same thing but he's too curious.

"What girl? The one from the other night?" he asks for clarification. The younger nods and Soobin continues. "The one who beat me?" He nods again. Soobin turns to the screen, "We were playing the game the other night and this user came into the room  
and took everyone out. It's like she had a secret map to the game and she knew just where to be to eliminate us one by one," he says.

Heuningkai looks at the camera and nods. "Yeah, she was really good. Better than any of us." Soobin looks at the screen flashing messages from MOA their fan base.

He reads one out loud, "How do you know it's a she?" he reads and looks to Heuningkai, "I guess we don't exactly know. We all just decided it must be a she from the profile name, GamerGurl," he takes another spoonful of the ice cream. He looks up at the messages flying fast on the screen. He sees one, points it out to Heuningkai and then looks back at the camera as he repeats, "How do you know she isn't watching you right now?" They look at each other and Heuningkai leans in to the shot.

"She's playing the game right now, Beomgyu is on, so she isn't watching VLive. She might not even be MOA," he says. He reads some of the responses, scanning through the usual declarations of love to see another response. He reads it out loud. "Can't she do both?" They look at each other and then back at the camera. Soobin leans in closer to the camera as he looks at the screen with a very serious expression. "Are you on VLive GamerGurl?"

He scans the responses, waiting, waiting, reading, they're going by so quickly. He focuses on the screen and looks shocked. He turns to Heuningkai and they both stare at each other in shock.

"Yes," he repeats what he's read. He drops his spoon. Kai leans in to see the screen and Soobin covers the mic as he speaks in muffled tones to Heuningkai quickly. He turns back to the camera and looks up at it. "GamerGurl, you're the only one who has ever beaten me at that game, stay in the game, I'll come on." He nods to Heuningkai who quickly leaves the room yelling for Beomgyu.

"I have to end this V Live early. I'm sorry, I'll try to come back again tomorrow but I'm going to play Kill Switch now if you want to try to join, the room code is Frenzy."

He shuts off the camera as he stands quickly to leave the room. He rushes to the shared Living space where he sees Heuningkai has joined Beomgyu on the couch as he plays in the game on the big monitor.

An alert pops up on his phone from weverse just as he sits down. He's tagged in a post but he isn't sure why. It doesn't usually alert him when MOA tags. He looks down at his phone and opens the message: "Don't you know I'm everywhere?" It says, the user name is GamerGurl. He shows his alert to Beomgyu and Kai.

"That will just be MOA changing their username to get your attention," Beomgyu reasons. Soobin looks back at the phone screen and frowns.

"Maybe," he bites his lip thinking before putting the phone down. "But why am I suddenly getting alerts from weverse?" He works the game controller as Kai watches them.

"There's too many people coming into the room now, don't we have a limit ?" He asks Beomgyu. He shakes his head.

"I don't think I set one I was just playing anonymously."

They watch Soobin expertly navigate through the game, laser focused and unbothered by the chat flying up the side of the screen. Kai and Beomgyu try to read through the chats but they're moving too fast.

"Have you seen any messages from her?" Soobin asks over his shoulder.

"No, the chat is too fast, I can't tell," Beomgyu says still trying to read the scroll.

"There!" Heuningkai shouts pointing, he runs to the screen to try to show them. "2 many stans. CU tomorrow.”

Soobin tosses the controller aside letting his character drop.

"Why did you do that you were winning?" Beomgyu asks.

"It's not a win if I can't beat her."

"Beat who?" Yeonjun comes into the living room and sits down with his band mates.

Heuiningkai turns to him. "That user who beat Soobin yesterday at Kill  
Switch, she was on again but she left because there were too many people playing."

"Aww man, she was good too." Yeonjun notices Soobin is disappointed.

"Yeah, now he doesn't want to play," Beomgyu says.

"I want to beat her, she's so good and I want to know who she is," he says looking back at his friends.

"What do you mean 'who'?" Kai asks.

"How can she be everywhere at the same time? I mean how is she on Weverse, VLive and Kill Switch practically at the same time? And how does she know I'm on?" he says shaking his head.

"So you mean, you thinks she's targeting you?" Yeonjun asks. Soobin looks at the other members.

"I don't know, it sounds weird but, yeah, sort of. I wish we could figure out who she is. We should ask Taehyun, he's good at working this kind of stuff out." The members nod and Kai stands up.

"I'll go ask him if he can't find her info from Weverse. If she's MOA we should have information on her account," he says.

"Wait," Beomgyu stops him, "Is that right to do, I mean wouldn't he be looking at private information?" He looks at the others to see if they understand.

"I just want to know how to contact her, I don't need any other information," Soobin says, but in his mind he isn't sure he's being honest about that. He really does want to know about her, and not just so he can beat her at Kill Switch.

"I'll ask him." he says, standing up, leaving the others to the game.


	2. Chapter 2

Soobin knocks at Taehyun's door, the younger is writing something at his desk when Soobin pops his head in.

"Tae, can you do me a favor?" he asks stepping in to the room. Taehyun looks up from his work and closes the notebook.

"Sure, what is it? Do you need another player for Among Us?" Soobin shakes his head.

"No, actually, last night, remember when we were playing Kill Switch..." Tae laughs a little.

"Oh, you mean when you finally got beat by someone better than you? Twice!" he smiles thinking back to how annoyed Soobin had been.

"Yeah, that. Well, the person who beat me- the girl who beat me- is on Weverse." he says.

"How do you know?"

"Sort of odd but she was playing again tonight, and Kai came to tell me while I was doing my VLive, and I mentioned her. Then, she messaged during the VLive." he tries to explain.

"How do you know it was her?"

"Apart from the user name, I have this feeling it was her."

"Wait, she was on VLive and playing the game?" Soobin nods his head.

"Yeah but that isn't even the weirdest part. She came on Weverse and tagged me in a post and I got an alert on my phone." Taehyun's face wrinkles.

"It doesn't alert me for every hashtag with my name."

"Me either! That's the thing. This one alerted me. I don't know how. And I want to know how she managed to do that."

"Is she sasaeng?" he looks at Soobin concerned.

"I don't think so. She just seems to enjoy teasing me because she beat me at Kill Switch, but I want to know how to contact her." he looks to Taehyun. "I need your help."

"My help? What can I do?"

"You know how to get into the admin account for us on Weverse. I was hoping you could look her up and give me her email address." Tae looks at him suspiciously, his eyes narrow.

"What are you going to do with it?"

"I don't know exactly, but I'd feel better if I wasn't just waiting for her next contact." Tae thinks about it for a moment and then turns back to his desk.

"Ok, give me a little time and I'll see what I can find for you." He opens his laptop as Soobin bows a thank you and leaves him alone in the room.

He walks past the others in the Living room and goes straight to his own room. He shuts the door and thinks about what he might do if he had the email address. Would he challenge her to a game? Should he even let on that he has her email? Maybe he should wait until she gives him a reason to use it. He shudders at the thought of what she might be able to do, if she was actually not a fan, or worse, a sasaeng.

***

Soobin sits up in bed, listening to the others still awake in the Living room playing games. He can't sleep, but not because they're being too loud. He's still wondering if it's right to get Taehyun to look into the account of GamerGurl. That could be considered low key creepy, particularly if she ends up being a kid. He shivers at the thought in his head.

He sits down at his desk and pulls out his phone. If he had another way to contact her, where he could be sure it really was her, he would. He thinks about it and an idea comes to him. She used GamerGurl on three different sites, maybe she uses it other places. He hovers his thumb over Twitter and Instagram apps on the screen thinking, Debating in his head. He's disturbed by a soft tapping at his door.

"Yeah?" he calls as Taehyun opens the door.

"Still awake hyung?" He steps into the room closing the door. He sits on the bed behind Soobin as he swivels his chair around to face him.

"Yeah, I'm a little restless."

"I wanted to let you know that I found some info on GamerGurl." Soobin's eyes grow wide. He leans closer to him.

"Is she a kid?" he whispers worriedly. Taehyun smiles, laughing a little.

"No, her birthdate on weverse says she's 18."

"And she is a she?"

"Yeah, I mean, people can lie, but don't usually since it's connected to her MOA membership."

Soobin smiles to himself. "She's MOA?" he says, almost to himself.

"I have an email address listed." He holds up a folded piece of paper in front of him. Soobin stares at it, thinking about how much he wants the address but before he can reach for it, Taehyun pulls it back closer to his chest. "But first I want to know why this is so important to you?"

"What do you mean?"

"Why does it matter who she is? I mean it's just a game right?" Soobin stands and sits next to Taehyun on the bed.

"I guess that's true. I wasn't that bothered getting beat at the time, but now that she's been on weverse and the VLive I have this idea I should find her first before-" he pauses, thinking.

"Before she finds you?" Taehyun asks. Soobin thinks for a moment, then nods.

"Yeah, exactly." Taehyun holds out the piece of paper. Soobin reaches for it, touching the paper before pulling it from his hand.

"Just don't take any risks," Taehyun says. "You don't want to get into trouble." Soobin nods. He understands Taehyun's concerns.

"I will be careful." He pulls the paper from his hand and holds it closed until Taehyun gets up to leave the room. When the door shuts he opens the paper and looks at the email.

'Park.Minji2002@gmail.com'

"Park Min-ji huh?" he says out loud, smiling. "What am I going to do with this information?" He thinks over some possibilities as he lays back on his bed, staring up at the ceiling.


	3. Chapter 3

Soobin hears a soft tap on his door and looks up from his bed to see Yeonjun at his door.

"Taehyun said he found your gamer gurl." He stays hovering in the door way until Soobin sits up on the bed. He holds the piece of paper up as Yeonjun steps into the room. "I just wanted to say, don't reach out tonight." Soobin looks at him confused.

"Why not hyung?" He hadn't considered actually sending her an email tonight but he's curious.

"Just think about it for a day, and decide if it's worth it. I mean, you said yourself, it's just a game."

"But don't you think it's weird she can be in the game, on weverse and VLive at the same time?" Yeonjun thinks for a moment.

"What if it's more than one person?" Soobin's eyes narrow.

"So you mean she's in the game, but different people are chatting? What about her weverse account?"

"You can change your nickname in weverse, why couldn't it be just a fan who wants to be noticed by you? She could have been on VLive when you mentioned the username and changed her weverse name." He thinks over what Yeonjun is suggesting. It is a possibility.

"Yeah, you're right. Beomgyu said something similar. But it feels like the same person, I can't explain it." 

"If she can be in all places at the same time, don't you think she might work at BigHit? It might be risky to reach out to her." He nods, agreeing.

"I won't try to contact her, not yet. I was half considering just waiting to see if she actually shows up again." Yeonjun stands up, satisfied.

"Want to play another game?"

"Sure, anything but Kill Switch," he smiles. "I'll be right out." Yeonjun leaves and Soobin opens the paper with the email address on it. He runs his thumb across her name. "Your move Min-ji." He sets the piece of paper down on his desk and follows after Yeonjun to join the others.

***  
He wakes the next morning to the irritating sound of an alert on his phone. He rubs his eyes, groggy from a long night awake and tries to identify what time it is from the angle of the sunlight coming through his window. He listens, but the house is quiet so it must be early. He looks through his bed covers to find the phone and checks the screen.

It's 7:05am and the alert is from the company. It's photo shoot day, and the car will pick them all up in less than an hour. He groans. He doesn't mind photo shoots, but he can't help but feel just a little disappointed that there is no new alert from Gamer Gurl. He stares at the folded piece of paper with her email address on his desk before pushing off the covers and getting up to wake the others.

***

Each member empties out of the large black car in front of BigHit headquarters. There is a small gathering of people waiting to see them. Generally, they are there waiting for any of the BigHit groups to happen to show up, but today several of them have signs for their fan club and he smiles and waves.

"Hey, look, its MOA." Heuningkai says excited. "Maybe one of them is your Gamer Gurl," he suggests. The idea wouldn't have occurred to him before, but, now he considers it. She does seem to know more about his schedule than the average fan...maybe...

The girls shout and jump up and down to get their attention. They wander over as a group, with security, to greet the waiting girls. Yeonjun poses for pictures with some of them. Beomgyu seems to be already deep in conversation with one fan. He smiles at several girls wearing cute headbands and wearing T-shirts with his own picture on it. They hold out notepads for him to sign and as he signs, he looks at each girl, searching her eyes to see if there is even a glint of recognition, or a smirk of knowing. They just smile back, dropping their eyes embarrassed, but happy to be able to share this moment. He waves goodbye as they are ushered into the building lobby and taken to the floor where their photo shoot will take place.

Soobin sits down in the hairdressers chair when it's his turn and he pulls out his phone to scan it as she starts to style his blue hair.

"Are we changing the color today?" she asks, looking at the dark roots on his head.

"I hope soon, but not today. This matches so well with Yeonjun hyung's hair," he responds smiling over at Yeonjun's beautiful pink and blonde hair as he sits in the make up chair next to him. He's eager to get it back to it's natural dark color, the blue being too much work to keep it up, but he'll do this one last photo shoot with the blue and then see about changing it.

He looks back to the screen in his hands and opens weverse. There is a post he's tagged in with 5-6 different images of him with blue hair. He clicks on the post, curious at the timing, and sees it's from Gamer Gurl!

He nearly drops the phone, he sits up quickly in his chair, exclaiming, "Yeonjun hyung!" He hands the phone over to him, and Yeonjun takes it and studies it curiously.

"So, she likes your hair blue," he says. He shrugs it off.

"We were just talking about changing it, just now." He looks around the room at the people rushing in and out. With five members needing hair, make up and wardrobe there are always a lot of people around. He tries to see if anyone is watching him, noticing him, but everyone seems to be focused on their own work. The woman doing his styling sprays his hair, and indicates that he is ready for make up now. He looks at her in the reflection from the mirror, wondering if it could be her. But she's definitely not paid a bit of attention to him since he sat down other than to his hair. It couldn't be her anyway, she's likely too old to play games online and post on weverse. He frowns.


	4. Chapter 4

He sits down in the make up chair next to Yeonjun who is having his foundation applied. The young woman working on Yeonjun is focusing hard on applying the make up with a sponge and Soobin studies her, wondering. This will drive him crazy if he starts to wonder if every female he sees today could really be her. He tries to shake it off and leans back as the woman he's worked with many times approaches him with her make up kit.

"How are you today?" She smiles at him.

"I'm good, thank you Mi-sun Noona," he smiles back up at her reflection. She shakes her head studying his reflection in the large mirror.

"No, you look tired. Did you not sleep well?" She frowns and turns to examine the circles under his eyes closer.

"I did stay up late, I guess I'm a little tired," he explains as she begins to apply concealer under his eyes.

"You kids always up late on the video games," she says as if talking to herself. His eyes pop open and he looks at her, a little panic runs through him as he wonders if this could be her. He swallows hard.

"I don't do that Noona, why would you think that?" he asks cautiously. She shakes her head again as she concentrates on blending in the foundation to the concealer.

"Ei," she exclaims throwing her hands up, "my niece, same thing, always online playing games: games, games, tweeting. Whatever." She starts applying the powder with a stiff brush, he grimaces a little at the discomfort as she works quickly. "It's such a waste of time, when there is so much to do." He thinks about what she's said, lots of younger people play games, and manage to do a lot of work as well. He closes his eyes to prevent the powder from irritating them and sits back to wait until she's finished.

When he's finished with make up, he brushes some of the powder off his stiff jacket and steps up to join some of the other members near the set. The photographer is shouting loudly, chastising someone working lighting equipment and they watch the altercation from the side of the set. The photographer's assistant quickly comes over to them to apologize, embarrassed for the display. She steps up in front of Soobin and he looks down at her, and smiles at her small, pretty face. She reaches up and wipes a little of the powder off his collar, absentmindedly, then pulls her hand back quickly when she realizes, flushing with embarrassment.

"I'm sorry for the delay. It will just be a few minutes more," she says very apologetically, her voice soft and low. She drops her eyes from his, her lashes are thick and dark and her cheeks have a rosy glow. She bows her head slightly as she steps backwards away from them. Soobin watches her, smiling at how pretty she looks. He looks over to notice Taehyun, who has just stepped out of the wardrobe room. He grins at him.

"You look good in a suit," he compliments his friend. Taehyun smiles.

"Yes, I do." He laughs and straightens up a little in his fancy jacket. "Hyung, did you ever message that user?" he asks. Soobin leans in close to him.

"No, I told Yeonjun I would wait and see if she contacts me again, but look what I got a little while ago." He pulls out his phone and shows him the post on weverse, having to scan through many tagged images to find it. Taehyun takes the phone and looks through it.

"Hmm," he mumbles, thinking. "She must like you with blue hair."

"That's what Yeonjun said, but I had just been talking about changing my hair a minute before I saw this post." He raises his eyebrows to emphasize it's importance.

"But, that could be a coincidence. I mean, she didn't make you go on weverse right at that moment, it could have been there for a while and have nothing to do with you talking about changing your hair," he reasons.

In his mind, Soobin knows this is true, but something is still bothering him about it. He looks around the studio, not recognizing anyone in this room as being in the other space at all. It is pretty unlikely that Gamer Gurl - Min-ji, is actually here with them. He looks over at the photographer's assistant who is rushing along beside him to copy down his orders. She has short silky hair cut in a bob and such pretty eyes. I sure wish it was her though, he thinks. He smiles at the idea and stifles a laugh.

Heuningkai interrupts his thoughts. "What are you smiling about hyung?" Soobin laughs again, blushing, embarrassed. He doesn't want to say, but that only makes the rest of them turn and look at him.

"Now I have to know what you were thinking," Beomgyu laughs, stepping closer. Soobin shakes his head.

"No, it's nothing." He continues to shake his head, and he covers his smile with his hand.

"Tell us!" Yeonjun joins in. He realizes this will continue until he agrees to tell them so he takes a deep breath.

"It's nothing really. I was just thinking that I wish Gamer Gurl looked like her," he shyly indicates to the photographer's assistant who is now on her phone reading off a list from her notepad. She stands leaning over a high table, tapping her pencil against her bottom lip as she listens on the phone. Beomgyu laughs at him.

"Yeah, sure, because you'd be that lucky," he teases and Soobin smiles shyly, trying not to blush as his friends laugh at him.


	5. Chapter 5

"Ok people let's go!" The photographer yells over to them as he turns and scans the room looking for his assistant. "Christ where is that girl?!" he mutters to himself, unaware his assistant is making calls for him. "Let's go, let's go, quickly!" he shouts clapping his hands together sharply. The members looks at each other, reluctant to be first to move. Soobin and Yeonjun raise an eyebrow at each other skeptically and slowly walk toward the set.

They try to make the best of the session. The photographer seems to be yelling at everyone behind the lights, and Soobin can't make out any of their faces, but he's glad he hasn't started yelling at any of them directly. He barks orders, but still seems to be trying to be polite, to the band anyway. Heuningkai has the most experience working with photographers of the group even though he's the youngest and he whispers into Soobin's ear,

"This guy is definitely angry about something, but luckily it's not anything we're doing," he says mirroring Soobin's thoughts. They both turn and smile for the camera and do their best to pose the way he's asked, hoping to end this quickly. 

"OK, just you Beomgyu, let's get some solo shots. The rest of you can take a break. JIMIN!" he shouts behind him. She steps up next to him from the shadows. "There you are, finally. Make sure they have something to eat and drink. Get them an iced coffee or something. Make yourself useful for once." he waves her off with his hand as he steps back toward the set to see Beomgyu stood there looking just a bit frightened of him. She looks over at the others who are watching from the side of the set, and he can tell that she's a little flustered.

Soobin watches as she slowly walks over towards them, and he feels embarrassed for her. The photographer was so dismissive and everyone in the room felt it. He steps over to meet her half way, before she is close to the others. He reaches out his hand to touch her arm and stops her.

"I'm sorry he is so rude. You don't have to do anything for us we will be fine," he reassures her. She looks up at him, a little sad, her lips pouting.

"It's my first real job. I guess I keep messing up," she says looking ashamed.

"I think you're doing fine." He tries to smile at her, releasing her arm. She looks up at him and smiles sweetly. She bows her head, mouths a thank you, and looks behind him to the others who are watching them.

"Let's get you a coffee. Maybe a biscuit," she teases and walks past him indicating he should follow along. He smiles after her and motions for the others to walk with her. Yeonjun stays behind and walks next to Soobin, smiling at him. Soobin smiles but tries not to meet his eyes.

"So, you like this girl?" He hits his arm playfully.

"It's strange but it feels like I've met her before somehow. She's seems nice, and she's very pretty." He blushes.

"It's ok, maybe you can forget Gamer Gurl now." They follow the others to the craft service table.

Soobin watches the assistant work the coffee machine for Taehyun showing off her caramel macchiato making skills. He politely waves away the offer of his own drink. She looks over the table for something else.

"Almond milk?" she offers. He looks up at her surprised, mouth open.

"How did you know I drink almond milk?" He looks at her suspiciously. The others have already dug into the spread of cookies and are not paying attention to their interaction. She stops pouring a glass for him and looks back confused. He's studying her with his eyes narrowed. This is definitely raising red flags to him.

"Hello," she says in a sing-song voice, teasing, "it's on the 'must have' list from BigHit for your photo shoot..." she rolls her eyes at him and smiles. He laughs embarrassed at himself.

"Sorry that sounded a little suspicious."

"Yeah, a little." She continues pouring.

"I've been a little distracted today, not quite myself," he offers, taking the glass and nodding a thank you.

"I can tell, you look a bit tired." She smiles warmly.

"That's what Misun said, she accused me of playing video games all night." He dunks a cookie into his glass and takes a bite.

"Yeah, she would say that," she says as she arranges the condiments on the table. "I get that lecture too,"

"Well, I didn't want to tell her she was right." He smiles slyly at her. She stops arranging things and looks up.

"Oh, what did you play?" she asks, but before he can answer the photographer shouts from the set,

"JIMIN, get the next one!" He shouts, unconcerned with exactly which member is up next. She bristles at his words. Soobin smiles at her.

"I'll go next, get it over with." He turns and walks back toward the photographer. She smiles at him and watches as he steps onto the set, changing places with Beomgyu who is happy to be finished with the photo shoot.

"Good luck looking calm and happy with this one," Beomgyu whispers into Soobin's ear as they switch places. Soobin straightens his jacket and stands up to his full intimidating height in front of the photographer. 

"Where do you want me?" The photographer looks up at his tall lean figure and shouts behind him to a lighting technician.

"Raise the damn key light!" The technician immediately begins to fiddle with the lamp. "Just take a few steps back, and keep standing tall...Someone bring me a step ladder!" He shouts behind him again. His Assistant steps up behind him with the stool and he steps up onto it. As she begins to back away he looks down at her. "For goodness sake girl, hold onto me, I'm not going to break my leg for this photo shoot," he grumbles. 

She reluctantly steps behind him, taking hold of his legs awkwardly. Her face betrays how loathsome she finds this task and she frowns with the expression of someone who has smelled something very unpleasant. Soobin watches her and laughs, enjoying the absurdity. 

"That's a great look, keep smiling just like that!" the photographer yells to him. Soobin locks eyes with her as she makes another face and he laughs again and looks into the lens just as the photographer captures the image. This awkward exchange continues until the Photographer has decided he has had enough of Soobin and he releases him in favor of the next member, who luckily isn't quite as tall. 

Soobin steps around the photographer as Taehyun takes his place on set. He watches as she helps the photographer off the stool and she backs away. She notices Soobin is standing nearby almost waiting for her.

"If you will excuse me, I'm going to go wash my hands, with bleach." She laughs and disappears around a corner. Yeonjun steps up to Soobin, still munching on a cookie.

"So, what do you think?" he asks. Soobin didn't realize he is still watching the space where the girl left the room. "Are you going to ask Jimin out?" Soobin blushes.

"Maybe." He smiles at Yeonjun who hands him a cookie.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> updated just to correct an error

Soobin hangs around the craft service table watching the others get their pictures taken. He hasn't seen Jimin come back through the door and he sits and scans his phone, looking up every once in a while. Beomgyu leans over to him.

"Soobin hyung, that user is on weverse, Gamer Gurl." Soobin's eyes get wide and he looks at Beomgyu's phone before turning to the phone in his hand. 

He opens weverse and sees the post, 'Soobin oppa, shall we play a game?' He smiles thinking about opening Kill Switch, but at that moment he sees Jimin come through the door carrying a heavy prop. She struggles a little. He sets his phone aside and rushes over the help her. He lifts the other side of what appears to be giant geometric block of color, awkward to carry, and he walks backward toward the set to help her put it down.

"Thanks, this is for the next set up," she explains.

"Do you have more to carry? I can help," he offers. She nods.

"I have about five more of these to bring in."

"Sure, I'll be right with you to help." He picks up his phone off the chair and types a message in response to Gamer Gurl. 'Can't now, working, definitely later' He puts his phone in his pocket and walks back to the doorway to help Jimin. He motions for Beomgyu and Taehyun to help. They join him near the doorway to wait to be handed a set piece, and they dutifully carry each one to the side of the set where the Photographer is working with Yeonjun. He notices what they are doing and turns toward Jimin who has just walked up with the last piece. She turns back to the others.

"Thank you for your help," she bows her head as she sets the last piece down with the others. The Photographer glares at her.

"Jimin, this is your work to do, not theirs. Their work is to look pretty, to look clean and fresh, and not be bothered by little girls fluttering their eyelashes to get favors done!" he snarls at her. The others are just as shocked as she is at his outburst and stand in embarrassed silence.

"I- I'm sorry I-" she tries to apologize but the words get caught in her throat. Soobin, being the leader, has now decided he's had enough of the photographers attitude.

"Just a minute, she didn't do anything wrong. She was struggling and I asked if she could use some help. You've been very rude to everyone all day and I'm done. Come on guys, we're finished with this photo shoot." He frowns and turns toward Jimin who looks like she might cry.

"Oppa please don't, you have more pictures you need to take," she pleads with him as the photographer stands in angry shock. Soobin takes her hands in his trying to comfort her.

"But he's been a jerk all day," he says softly, just to her. "I don't want to hear him talk to you like that anymore."

"But it will be worse for me if you don't finish the shoot." She looks panicked. He considers what she's said and looks at the others. They are watching him, waiting for his decision, but he knows they will support him regardless. He looks back at her, still holding her hands. He nods his head, understanding.

"Ok, but he's got to stop talking to you like that," he whispers. He turns back to the photographer who seems to be smirking a little, waiting for Soobin to speak. "We will stay and finish the shoot, but you can't speak to her like that anymore. Anything you need to say to her, you say nicely, and treat her with respect. In fact, you should treat everyone here that way, even if you don't have respect for them, fake it!" He says sternly. He would never speak to a person in his position this way but he knows the guy is totally in the wrong and he knows that the company would back him up if it came to it.

The photographer drops his smirk, thinking over what he's said, and he nods once in agreement. He turns back toward the set and Yeonjun who is waiting to see what will happen. 

"OK. I will try." He smiles feebly. Soobin nods to Yeonjun who steps back to his previous position on the set. Then he turns back to her, watching her blush. Her smile is so pretty it warms his heart.

"Thank you for your kindness. I really appreciate it," she says sincerely. "You don't have to be this nice to me." He smiles at her and takes her hand again.

"I like you. I don't want anyone to treat you badly," he says biting his lip, trying to find the courage to say more.

"But you don't even know me."

"I kind of feel like I do." He laughs to himself at the idea. "I'd like to know more. Would you like to go out, maybe after the shoot, get some dinner?" he asks, blushing at his own awkwardness. Her eyes light up but she shakes her head almost in disbelief. She pauses too long starring back at him. He feels the tension of the awkwardness. "If you want, or some other time, I mean if you're busy," he rambles on. Deep in his heart, he knows that his friends are watching all of this and he's secretly dying of embarrassment waiting for her to respond. She smiles, and looks around before she looks back at him, seeming a little overwhelmed.

The photographer interrupts them, "Jimin!" he shouts, but then remembers himself before he continues, "please, can you start bringing the set pieces on for the next set up?" She looks over at her boss and smiles.

"I would be happy to, but my name is not Jimin. You've been calling me that all day and I ignored it, but my name is Min-ji. Please call me that," she says and she smiles at Soobin whose eyes pop open wide. He stares at her, mouth agape, unable to say anything. The others sound an audible collective 'whoa' as she steps past them to the set, carrying one of the decorative pieces. His bandmates rush to his side as soon as she is out of earshot and hit him playfully. Taehyun is the first to speak. 

"Is it even possible?" Soobin is standing still, mouth open, in shock. "Could that be her? Gamer Gurl?" Soobin can only shake his head a little, unsure how to respond.

"It can't be the same person, she was here in front of us when I saw the post on weverse." Beomgyu offers. Heuningkai shakes his head.

"No, she came in after that was posted. It's her, it's definitely her," he says and he's so excited at the idea that he can't stop himself from jumping up and down in place. Soobin has yet to react.

"Well, what do you think? Is it her?" Beomgyu asks him. He shakes his head, still marveling at the idea of it.

Yeonjun is staring at her as she places the first set piece near him. He's seen and heard everything from his place on set. He leans over and says quietly, "So, you're Gamer Gurl?"

She looks up at him in shock, and looks back to Soobin who is still standing with the others, but looking right at her. She smiles a little at the sight of him, deep in a private thought. Yeonjun knows now that it's definitely her.

"It's OK if you are. We thought you might be a few different people, but he always thought you were just one person. I told him you probably worked for BigHit," he says proud of himself for working it out. She looks at him now in a little panic.

"I would totally be fired if they thought I was bothering their artists. My Aunt would be fired too most likely," she says remorsefully.

"Who is your aunt?"

"Misun, your make up artist. She got me this job. I guess I've really messed up." She lowers her head. Yeonjun, looks over at Soobin.

"He asked you out?" She nods, her head still hanging. "Do you like him?" a smile breaks across her face even though she isn't meeting his eyes. He shrugs. "Then say 'yes', quickly before he turns beet red." He laughs and pushes her back towards the group standing, watching her. She awkwardly walks up to him and the others scatter quickly.

"Park Min-ji?" he asks. She nods, dropping her head but raising her eyes to look at him. She looks adorable. He can't help but smile.

"Should I ask how you know that?" He bites his lip and glances at the others for a moment. They are watching them but trying not to be obvious. He shrugs a little, not sure how to begin. "We probably have a lot to talk about." She smiles at him and he nods, feeling relieved.

"I think we do." He looks up at her, hopeful.

"Then, let's do it over dinner," she suggests. Her smile lights up her face as he meets her eyes. He laughs a little and nods, bowing to her, blushing. The others cheer loudly from behind them and she looks over at them, embarrassed. "But right now, I'm working. Definitely later?" she suggests, arching her eyebrow and smiling coyly.

"Definitely," he repeats, grinning back at her. "You owe me a game."


End file.
